Audiobooks Narrated by Samya De Meo

Dances: A Novel

"A ballerina at the height of her powers becomes consumed with finding her missing brother in this "striking debut" (Oprah Daily). "A compelling novel about the spiritual and bodily costs of the dogged pursuit of art."-Raven Leilani, author of Luster LONGLISTED FOR THE CAROL SHIELDS PRIZE FOR FICTION • LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/HEMINGWAY AWARD At twenty-two years old, Cece Cordell reaches the pinnacle of her career as a ballet dancer when she's promoted to principal at the New York City Ballet. She's instantly catapulted into celebrity, heralded for her "inspirational" role as the first Black ballerina in the famed company's history. Even as she celebrates the achievement of a lifelong dream, Cece remains haunted by the feeling that she doesn't belong. As she waits for some feeling of rightness that doesn't arrive, she begins to unravel the loose threads of her past-an absent father, a pragmatic mother who dismisses Cece's ambitions, and a missing older brother who stoked her childhood love of ballet but disappeared to deal with his own demons. Soon after her promotion, Cece is faced with a choice that has the potential to derail her career and shatter the life she's cultivated for herself, sending her on a pilgrimage to both find her brother and reclaim the parts of herself lost in the grinding machinery of the traditional ballet world. Written with spellbinding beauty and ballet's precise structure, Dances centers around women, art, and power, and how we come to define freedom for ourselves."

Nicole Cuffy (Author), Samya De Meo (Narrator)

Audiobook

Play Sample Listen For Free

The Top 10 Short Stories - The African American Women

"Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author's brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted 'Top Tens' across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions - Why that story? Why that author? The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme. Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature.Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made. If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something.Race and gender have denied many their rightful place in literary history. When we take time to look again we find remarkable jewels of astonishing merit that reveal just how many talented stories have emerged from the pens of these very special women.01 - The Top 10 - The African American Women - An Introduction2 - Two Offers by Frances W Harper3 - The Wooing of Pastor Cummings by Georgia F Stewart4 - The Stones of the Village by Alice Dunbar Nelson5 - The Hoodoo by Martha Gruening6 - The Octoroon's Revenge by Ruth D Todd7 - Breaking the Color Line by Annie McCary8 - The Quadroons by Lydia Maria Child9 - The Preacher at Hill Station by Katherine Davis Chapman Tillman10 - Talma by Pauline E Hopkins11 - Aunt Lindy. A Story Founded on Real Life by Victoria Earle Matthews"

Alice Dunbar Nelson, Frances W Harper (Author), Darrell Joe, Samya De Meo (Narrator)

Audiobook

Play Sample Listen For Free